Standards for the music supply chain

Businesses along the music supply chain have in the past experienced a lack of standardised data exchange formats and protocols. This has resulted in significant inefficiencies in ingesting and processing data. DDEX greatly alleviates these inefficiencies by developing standards for the communication and management of metadata. Some benefits are:

As DDEX standards become more widely adopted, there will no longer be a need for business partners to manage multiple proprietary formats;

Faster time to market;

Improved operational quality;

Improved data quality;

Shared cost reductions between partners throughout the digital supply chain;

Less duplication of work; and

Reduced data feeds (inbound as well as outbound).

Other industries have already benefited from such automated ex-change of information. One such example is the way mobile phone operators exchange roaming information. Without global standards it would be virtually impossible to use a mobile phone abroad. The communication about whether a specific phone may be used on a foreign carrier, and whether its user still has credit available needs to be fast, seamless and without human interaction. This can only be achieved by using standards.